20.1: An Unkindness of Ghosts pre-read: Reading with privilege, using genre conventions, and truth in fiction

Spectology: The Science Fiction Book Club Podcast

In what ends up being a surprisingly introspective episode of Spectology, we introduce our new book: An Unkindness of Ghosts by Rivers Solomon (https://amzn.to/2O0rXHa).
It is a very good book about life amongst the lower classes on board a generation ship. You and should buy it and read it.
Much of this episode is spent questioning whether reading fiction can actually teach us things (where "us" = readers with privilege), or whether the emotions that fiction can induce are used as a stand-in for actually doing work. Answers are not found.
We also do book facts and talk about science fiction. We discuss different types of dystopian fiction & how genre tropes can be used or misused. But I'm not going to lie this one is weirdly pensive & self-reflective, even for us.

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Many thanks to Dubby J and Noah Bradley for doing our music and art.